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At Laker’s suggestion, A. C. Leftley, chief designer of Aviation Traders, designed a nose-loading car ferry conversion of the Douglas DC-4/C-54 after investigating a variety of other types as potential car ferries. With second-hand DC-4s and C-54s available for £40,000 and conversion costs of around £150,000 the Carvair (Car-via-air) was significantly cheaper than any new design. A new bulbous nose was fitted, with a much -raised cockpit. All the controls, most of which were mechanical, had to be re-routed from the new flight deck, but the ATL-98 Carvair, as it came to be known, proved easy to fly, and the bulbous nose reduced its speed by only four knots. The tail surfaces were increased in size to match those of the DC-7. DC-6 brakes were fitted to cope with the higher all-up weight of the Carvair, which could carry five full-size saloon cars and 23 passengers. The prototype Carvair was based on an Air Charter DC-4 and first flew on 21 June 1961. Conversions of DC-4s lasted for eight years, from 1960 to 1968, and they continued to fly for British Air Ferries until 1 January 1977. Twenty-one Carvairs were eventually produced.